Down Under: Vanishing Cultures [Library Binding]

Jan Reynolds (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1992 | Age Level: 8 and up | Series: Vanishing Cultures

Documents the daily lives and beliefs of the Tiwi--a northern Australian group of aborigines who continue to travel the same paths that their ancestors have walked for thousands of years without touching or disturbing the landscape.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 3-6-- Reynolds focuses her attention and her camera on a few individuals to relate information about daily life among the Tiwi, who live off the coast of northern Australia. After an introduction that briefly examines the concepts of walkabout and Dreamtime, readers meet a young girl who asks her mother to tell her a story about their tribe. Through this story and other details, readers learn about Tiwi art, food gathering, and customs. The author concludes with a two-page addendum about her experiences living with this group. Some of the full-color photographs have postcard beauty, while others are almost surrealistic; all are outstanding. Captions are used sparingly to explain ideas introduced in the text. Down Under will be successful as curriculum support , in conjunction with Browne's An Aboriginal Family (Lerner, 1985), which looks at another Northern Territory tribe, or Cobb's This Place Is Lonely (Walker, 1991) , and as supplementary reading for children interested in learning more about Australia's native peoples. A world map on the endpapers pinpoints the Tiwis' home. --Jeanette Larson, Texas State Library, Austin
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 8 and up
  
• Library Binding
• Publisher: Harcourt Childrens Books (J); 1st edition (April 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0152241825
• ISBN-13: 978-0152241827
• Product Dimensions: 11.1 x 8.6 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,889,727 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful content and photographs about an aboriginal tribe, September 24, 2003

By 

christinemm - The Thinking Mother (Houston Texas USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Down Under: Vanishing Cultures (Library Binding)

This is an excellent picture book about Aboriginal life in modern day Australia. Actually this follows the Tiwi tribe of Aboriginal peoples who live on a small island off the coast of Australia. High quality photographs accompany the text.

The format is "a day in the life of a child", and we follow a tribe who is doing their walkabout. The Tiwi tribe is nomadic and they take journeys called walkabouts, the same journey on foot that their ancestors walked. We see photos of, and text explains, such things as a mother telling a story to her daughter before bedtime near the fire, hunting for snakes and bandicoot. We see how children are equally responsible for hunting and gathering as their parents and grandparents. As the book progresses we learn of certain animals and reptiles that live in the area. We share in a ceremony to honor the dead and see the adults playing with the children at the beach.

The author learned this information by personally traveling with this tribe on their walkabout. The introduction and an afterward explain more details about that to the adults who are reading this book.

This is a wonderful book and it rounded out our studies of Australia. It is not easy to find great books Aboriginal people for this age range-this is a great one! This is one of a series of books about "vanishing cultures" by this author.